Another Way
by BitchwithFangs
Summary: Sometimes, it is the slightest shift that can cause the biggest change in events. What if, after the fire was let go out, one such shift occoured?


What would have happened if the slightest change within the book of Lord of the Flies occured? Such a small thing, and yet with such resounding effects.  
What would happen if, say, the encounter on top of the mountain after the fire was alowed to go out went a little differently?

Another Way

"_Jack, his face smeared with clays, reached the top first and hailed Ralph excitedly, with lifted spear.  
"Look! We've killed a pig-we stole up on them-we got in a circle—"  
Voices broke in from the hunters.  
"We got in a circle—"  
"We crept up—"_

"_The pig squealed—"_

_The twins stood with the pig swinging between them, dropping black gouts on the rock. They seemed to share one wide, ecstatic grin. Jack had too many things to tell Ralph at once. Instead, he danced a step or two, then remembered his dignity and stood still, grinning. He noticed blood on his hands and grimaced distastefully, looked for something on which to clean them, then wiped them on his shorts and laughed"_

The world suddenly shifted. Two possibilities lay side by side, unknowing of

each other, unaware of how close they came to not being.

Jack's laughter paused as he noticed that Ralph had not joined in, and he frowned closely at the boy, as if trying to find cause for his unmoving, stony face. The crowd of hunters quietened as they, too, noticed Ralph's unwavering stare pointing directly at Jack.

"What's wrong with you? Did the huts fall down or something?"

Ralph remained silent for a moment, just looking at Jack, thinking of the sheer childish happiness displayed on his face mere moments before.

Slowly, he shook his head. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."  
The boys behind Ralph blinked in shock, and Piggy cried out shrilly, "Ralph! But they-"  
"It doesn't matter, Piggy. Just leave it."

He turned back to Jack, ignoring the scowling Piggy, and looked at the ginger-haired boy who was once more frowning slightly in confusion, trying to work out what he had missed. Ralph gave a small smile at the expression, and repeated, "Don't worry about it, Jack. It's nothing. So, what's this I hear about the hunt?"

Jack's face broke out once more into a wide, ecstatic grin as he and the other Hunters went on to describe their hunt, and the victory that had taken place, interspersed now and then with the appropriate approving comments from a gently smiling Ralph. None of the Hunters even seemed to notice as they helped the other boys rebuilding the fire, talking excitedly all the while.

All was not entirely well on the island after that, but it was better than it might have been. Jack and Ralph became thought of by the boys as joint chiefs, even if not in name. The Hunters were held in an odd mixture of camaraderie and respect, the boys seeing clearly the only source of their meat. Well, all but one of the Hunters. Roger, a few nights after the first successful hunt, had vanished without a word. He would have been considered dead were it not for the remains of pig carcasses the hunters regularly found, and the event that happened a few weeks after his disappearance.

Piggy, it seemed, had disappeared one evening, and not been noticed until the feast the following day. Hunters had been sent out to look for him, but had found only what appeared to be the broken remains of his glasses a few scant feet away from a treacherous drop; his broken glasses, and an odd stain of brownish red off to one side.

"He must have fallen," said Ralph when he was brought to the spot.

"That's right. Fallen," the rest of the boys agreed, studiously ignoring the stain and the prickle on the back of their necks encouraging them to turn around and meet the dark gaze from the shadows they all knew they would find.

And so time passed, and whether it be days, weeks, months or even years meant nothing to the boys. Eventually would come the day when the boys would be picked up, even if they themselves didn't know it. And so we join them, all of the boys, standing once more on the beach, after a passage of time nobody had cared to measure.

Jack was standing in front of a crowd of boys, looking bedraggled and dirty, covered in copious amounts of soot. He was grinning at Ralph in embarrassment, grateful not for the first time for the way his dark tan hid the blush of mortification.

"Jack..." Ralph sighed, "How many times have I told you not to use fire in hunting?"

The boy's embarrassed grin widened, and he brought a hand up to the back of his neck to rub it in a sheepish fashion.

"...A few," he admitted, "But it honestly, it wasn't suppose to spread this far! It was just a little one, to smoke the pigs out you see, and it worked terrifically. They were all running towards me, right within Spears reach! But then...well...."

"It spread and set fire to the whole jungle."  
Jack winced slightly at that.  
"Well...yeah. But it wasn't on purpose, honestly!"

Ralph sighed again, and brought his hand up to the bridge of his nose in a gesture he had, before life on the island, seen the grownups use many times, but had not understood until encountering Jack.

"Jack," he said, sighing once more and wrenching his thoughts away from his memories. "I know you didn't do it on purpose. It's the fact that you burnt down the trees that's annoying me. What will we do tomorrow? We don't have any shelters now, and all the fruit trees have burnt down. Blimey, Jack," he commented with a slight chuckle, "Can't you restrain yourself next time?"

The hunter in front of him had to join in with the laughter, but did reply.

"Sorry, Ralph. I will try next time honestly. It's just that-"

There was a clearing of a throat, and both boys, Hunter and Chief, turned to the source, annoyed at the interruption. They both stopped at what they found waiting there.

Standing before them was a naval officer, uniform complete with a row of shiny gilt buttons down the front. He stood with what seemed to the boys to be an odd look of surprise and confusion.

After exchanging brief and uncomfortable "Hullos" the officer nodded, and asked if there were any grown-ups with them. Upon receiving a negative he frowned slightly, and turned a half-pace to observe the boys on the beach before him, who had at some point clustered into a sort of semicircle, Hunters with painted masks and deadly spears at the front.

"Fun and games," he said after watching them for a moment.

The fire behind them had reached the front line of the trees by now, and was eating at them noisily.

"We saw your smoke. Jolly good idea. "

Jack had to grin at that. "It was my idea. I was thinking of a way to send up a notice of where we were."

The chief rolled his eyes in the background, but refrained from speaking up in the presence of the grown up.

"Well done lad. Very good thinking. Who knows what might have happened if you had been left here any longer."

One of the boys, a muddied and dirtied Percival Wemys Madison, made to go up to the officer, but was held back by the gentle arm of Simon, and so was unnoticed by the naval officer before him.

"We'll take you off. How many of you are there? Who's the boss here?"

"I am," said Ralph, to the nodding of the boys around him, and the amused grin of Jack. He swiftly went on to give a number of the boys, grateful for the first time that he and Jack had counted once after the latter's first unsuccessful combination of fires and hunting.

"So is this everyone then?" The officer asked, seemingly not wanting to waste his time counting dirty boys when other things could be done.

The boys froze slightly, all of them at once sensing the hard gaze of a pair of dark eyes at their backs.

"...yes," said Ralph, "this is everyone"

The officer nodded, and turned to talk with the men behind him. Ralph regarded them with surprise, not having noticed them for the entirety of the time they must have been standing there.

The now-nearly-former-chief turned towards his best hunter and friend.

"Well, Jack? Ready to brave civilisation once more, d'you think?"

The red-headed boy grinned, a familiar hint of devilry in his eyes.

"Of course, Chief," he said. "I'd follow you to the very ends of the world."

The End

So, what do people think? This is my first ever posting on , and although I hate to have to admit it, this was originally written as an essey for english.  
I would like to know whatpeople think, and if anyone thinks I should continue writing, as I do have a few more oneshot ideas, abet long ones. So, if only for the purpose of telling me never to write again, please do review, but I won't sulk i you dont.

So, untill possibly next time,  
BitchwithFangs


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